ABSTRACT

The emergence of a multi-party system is an outstanding feature of political life in post-Soviet Russia, although it bears little resemblance to those multi-party systems found in traditional Western democracies. The essence of the dissimilarity lies in the relationship between the parties and the executive power, embodied in the office of the president. The executive branch poses as a supra-party force, devoid of any sectorial interests, representing society in its entirety, and therefore consciously avoiding identification with any political group. This perception of power is not so very different from the nineteenth century tsarist idea, which was reinforced, ironically, by the Soviet doctrine which claimed a leading social and political role for the Communist Party. Thus, any development of a multi-party system in Russia was contingent upon the dismantling of the deeply-rooted notion of integration of party, state and society.